Manufacture of glass signs, plates, or tablets.



\VILHELM SOHELL, JR, OF OFFENBURG, GERMANY.

MANUFACTURE OF GLASS SIGNS, PLATES, OR TABLETS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 642,925, dated February 6, 1900.

Application filed October 18, 1898. Serial No. 693,923. (No specimens.)

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, WILHELM SOHELL, J r., manufacturer of glass signs, residing at Offenburg, in the Grand Dukedom of Baden, Empire of Germany, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in the Mannfacture of Glass Signs, Plates, or Tablets, of which the following is a specification.

The manufacture of glass signs, plates, or tablets for the names of firms,advertisements, and general glassware decorations has hitherto been carried out by first conveying the metalsuch as gold, silver, or thelike-in the form of leaf or deposited metal or metal deposited by chemical means onto the glass and then painting the writing or design reversed on this metal or reproducing it thereon by pressure or by another reproducing process. After being dried the surplus metal particles are removed by brushing or friction, so that when seen from the front of the glass the type or design appearsin bright metalon transparent glass. If the core or center of the writingis to appear dull and roughened or granular and only the contour or a shadow to be smooth or blank, the places which are not to appear blank or plain are previously etched V or painted with a color which, after the disposition of the metal, will give these places a dull appearance. The ground or foundation can then be formed either by simply laying on a color behind it, or the ground may be painted and decorated or the painted ground be decorated with a picture, flowers, or a transfer-picture. These processes are inconvenient, time -consuming, and costly. By means of the process hereinafter described a quite sharp writing or drawing is obtained, and by means of this a sign, plate, or tablet may be finished or completed in a very short time.

In this process the writing or design of the sign, plate, or tablet (which may be as elaborate as desired) and the body-color or the design forming the background are first imprinted on prepared paper, the places which are to be represented by metal being left free, and the picture is then transferred onto the glass. By then simply drawing the paper off the glass'a representation of the entire tablet, together with the background, is shown thereon, with only the places which are to appear metallic remaining transparent. After the drying of the picture these places are then coated at the back with sheet metal-2'. a, gold-leaf or the like or tin-foil. If, on the other hand, it be desired to obtain in bright metal only the outline of the writing or drawing, while the core or center of the same is to remain dull, a suitable printed coating is applied to the places to be rendered dull before the metal is deposited, or these places are dulled or granulated by etching before drawing off the picture. In transferring the picture to the glass care must therefore be taken that those places which are to remain open for the purpose of being coated with metal do not receive any transfer lacquer or varnish. Therefore the latter is not applied by hand, but to the paper by means of a plate on which the open places are cut out, which is then pressed on the picture and drawn oif, whereby there is obtained for those places on which the metal is to come a completely-blank glass surface. This impressing of the transfer-varnish may also be employed for the old process of making tablets or signs, according to which only the writing is first completely finished on the glass and then the background further decorated by means of a tranfer-pictu re. In such operation it can hardly be avoided that the background becomes coated or smeared with varnish, which on the drawing off of the transfer infringes on the outside edges of the picture, giving a ragged contour and dirty spots where a clear surface is desired, if the transfer-pictu re be not cut out or coated by hand with a transfer lacquer or varnish very eX- actly corresponding to the outer edge of the picture. In this improved process, on the contrary, it is only necessary to make an impression with transfer-varnish on the picture by means of a plate which corresponds to the outer edge of the picture. The picture therefore alone comes exactly on the glass without smearing the glass in the slightest. In the case of drawings or designs which gradually diminish to the background it is more particularly of great importance, as any cleaning of the ground after the drawing 0d of the transfer-picture can only be done by means of turpentine-oil, whereby the writing pre-- viously applied to the glass is injured.

This improved method of picture-transfer may also be employed in porcelain manufacture,usi n g ceramic transfer-pictures,as thereby the defect is avoided of the colors which are dusted on the pictures and which generally form a slight mist or haze all around the picture being transferred to the object being decorated, which cannot be avoided when applying transfer-varnish by hand.

Having now particularly described and ascertain ed the nature of the said invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is A process for making glass signs consisting in making a transfer-picture on paper with the ground color and the sign thereon, but with letters left blank and free of color, ap-

plying to this transfer-picture a plate having letters corresponding to those of the transferpicture and carrying transfer liquid and having the letters cut away, removing the latter plate, thereby leaving the transfer liquid on the transfer-picture, applying the transferpicture to the glass and transferring it onto the same, so as to leave the letters in blank on the glass, while the design is visible from the front of the glass, and applying to the blank letter portions metal foil to cause the letters to appear in gold or silver.

\VILHELM SOHELL, JR. Vitnesses:

G. GoMM, W. PiisoHEL. 

